When Daniel woke up, it was already past six o'clock. He touched his head and saw that there was no one else on the bed except for himself. After getting up, he picked up a glass of water and slowly took a sip. Sofiya came in and saw that Daniel was already up. She said with a smile, "Brother Dan, you're up! I wanted to wake you up, but Mom said to let you sleep a little longer. You've become such a lazy pig!"
"What does Saturday have to do with it?" Daniel asked while looking around.
Sofiya climbed onto the bed and started tidying up Daniel's bedding. Children in the countryside are generally quite sensible and know they should help with chores. After tucking herself in, she said, "Mom went up the mountain early this morning to pick wild vegetables, and my sister went out to gather pig feed. I left you two steamed buns on the table, go and eat them!"
It seems that Second Aunt is still somewhat bothered by what happened last night. The biggest contributor to this happy occasion was that bottle of sweet potato liquor; as they say, alcohol corrupts the mind. Daniel, recalling the soft, warm fragrance of last night, wondered if he should pick up that bottle of sweet potato liquor and find a place to offer it a sacrifice.
"Brother Dan, steamed buns!"
Sofiya handed over two white steamed buns.
After telling Sofiya and her aunts to let them know, Daniel walked home while munching on a slightly cold steamed bun. After more than an hour's walk, he could see a large group of villagers and children crowding around his house, each carrying baskets of wild vegetables. They looked just as busy as if they were on sale at a supermarket. He estimated there were at least three hundred people, and they weren't even all wearing school uniforms.
"Daniel, why are you only arriving now!" George was a bit flustered, not expecting so many villagers to come over for just one cent ($0.1) per 1/2 kg. Almost the entire family mobilized. Even Uncle Shan and a few others who were usually on good terms with him came to help. The men busied themselves weighing the wild vegetables. Danisha stood beside the scale, diligently recording the numbers in her notebook, while Julie busied herself serving tea, water, and towels to everyone. Among the crowd were quite a few students from the Lotus Middle School, who kept glancing at Danisha out of the corner of their eyes.
"I went to bed a little late last night. How's the packing going?" Daniel ran over and asked with concern, after all, this concerned his first gold medal.
However, his younger sister's outfit today was merely eye-catching; she wore baggy school uniform pants and only a tight vest, her chest barely concealed by any visible curves, which suited her slender figure. Her delicate face was full of seriousness. Her jet-black hair was tied in a simple ponytail, radiating youthful energy. Even some older men couldn't help but steal a few glances.
"Don't even mention it! We've already harvested over 2000Kg! You haven't come back yet, so I asked Uncle Shan to help us find a few trucks. Luckily, he has a relative who runs a transport business, and he found eight trucks for us. It costs $30 a day to go to the provincial capital and back per truck. We only spent $400 on harvesting wild vegetables, but the trucking costs are high. We absolutely can't afford to lose money." George said somewhat nervously.
"Dad, don't worry! Have all the wild vegetables been loaded onto the truck?"
"It's loaded. Your Uncle Shan and a few others are busy over there. They've sorted it as you said, and a truckload is already loaded!" George pointed to the side as he spoke.
"Alright, Dad, give me $70, and I'll collect as many as I can here. I'll take this whole truckload first!"
Daniel extended his hand as he spoke.
George slowly took out the money from his pocket and cautiously handed it over: "Daniel, it's not that Dad doesn't trust you. You absolutely can't lose this time, this money is for your college education!"
"Now you know!"
As Daniel spoke, he dashed towards the truck. One truck was already loaded and covered with a tarpaulin. Uncle Shan was talking to a man who looked like a driver.
"Hello Uncle Shan! How have you been busy lately?"Daniel ran over and greeted them.
"Alright, that's all for now! Talk to Daniel!" Uncle Shan nodded with a smile.
"Big brother, can we walk now?"
Daniel asked the middle-aged man who looked like a driver next to him.
The middle-aged man nodded, and Daniel got into the car with him, along with two young men. They were both from nearby villages, hired for $6 a truck load/unload. After thinking for a moment, Daniel decided it would be better to go directly to the farmers' market in the eastern suburbs of the provincial capital. The daily throughput there was simply too huge. Many vendors from economically developed provinces that lacked agricultural products went there to pick up goods to resell, and some food processors even set up points there specifically to buy these agricultural products.
After a bumpy two-hour ride, the truck slowly approached the farmers' market. After paying the administrator $5 for the day's work, it stopped in an open space. Daniel told the driver and two porters to wait in the truck, while he took a stool, several bags of wild vegetables, and some cardboard, choosing a spot with the most people and setting them out.
Well-known wild vegetables like Sweet patato were priced at $1 per Kg, while rarer but more famous vegetables like *Wild Rotten Vegetable* were $1.5 per Kg, and common, little-known wild vegetables were only just $0.5 per Kg. He had barely sat down when a chubby man with a bulging wallet approached, looked at the samples on the ground, squatted down, and asked, "Young man, how many wild vegetables do you have?"
Daniel glanced up and immediately recognized him as a middleman—the kind of person who's wealthy but also incredibly shrewd. He probably saw the prices and was tempted, then, seeing Daniel's rural appearance, decided to rip him off. He lazily said, "No more, just a 2 metric ton [1 metric ton= 1000kg] today!"
The fat man was a dealer in the market who specialized in buying cheap goods from farmers who looked rather simple-minded. When he saw Daniel looking like a country student, he immediately started calculating:
"Young man, I'm not trying to be mean, but you're treating these things way too well. Look at the price! These rotten wild vegetables are only worth a dollar a kg at most. Besides, there's practically no cost to grow them. You're selling them at an outrageous price."
"Alright, I can't explain that much to you, sir. Anyway, this is the price I'm selling it for! Not a penny less. And don't think I don't know that wild vegetables are already selling for more than $3 a kg in places like Maple Town. If you think it's too expensive, then go buy from someone else. My price is fixed."
Daniel knew exactly what he was planning to do, and immediately shook his head.
The fat man thought for a long time before slowly saying, "How about this? I see you had a hard time getting into the city. I'll pay you $1 per kg, and the rest at $0.75 price. How about 2000kg in total? That's a lot of money! And I'll count it immediately upon seeing the goods." He then pulled a wad of cash from his pouch and waved it around; it looked like over $1000. Unfortunately, he didn't see the gleam in the child's eyes that he had expected.
"I have to say, you're really good at bluffing! To put it bluntly, how many wild vegetable vendors have you seen in this market? And how many of them can sell in the same quantity as me? We're all in business to make money, right? You should know what my prices are like. The money from this one transaction will be enough for you to live comfortably for a while. It's normal for everyone to make money. How about this? If you can buy all my stuff, I'll save you the trouble and give you a discount. I'll round down the total amount after weighing it. Is that fair enough?"
Seeing that a number of vendors had gathered around, Daniel knew that the fat man was starting to lose his composure.
Seeing that many people around him were already using calculators to check the prices and doing calculations, and some had even started asking questions, the fat man thought for a moment and said, "One-tenth is a bit too little! Add some more. Once this paving is done, I'll be a long-term supplier from you. You should tell me how many wild vegetables you have right now."
"Not much, just one cartload right now! The total weight is 2000kg. But we'll need a few more cartloads today!"
Daniel spoke lazily, and one could clearly sense a glint in the eyes of the vendors who had gathered around him.
"Young man, give me a discount! I'll take two truckloads of your goods."
The first to lose his composure was a shrewd-looking skinny man who immediately spoke up. The fat man, now anxious, pulled Daniel aside and whispered, "Young man, you see, I'm the first one here. I only have enough money to rent one or two truckloads of goods. How about this: I'll find some merchants scattered across the country to buy your goods, and I guarantee it'll all be cash. We'll just do a 10% commission, but you'll have to pay me afterwards!"
Daniel knew these dealers were shrewd but not bad people, and he figured he was familiar with the area. If they could help him solve this problem, it would save him a lot of trouble. So he immediately said with a knowing look, "Brother, although these wild vegetables grow on the mountain, you have to understand that digging them up is not like harvesting crops. You have to climb the mountain and dig them up bit by bit. So they're a bit more expensive now. How about this? I'll give you 12% off the price you want, and for the rest you help me sell, I'll sell it for $1.25 and give you ($0.15) . In the end, this stuff is more profitable to resell, isn't it?"
The fat man nodded with a smile, and the two of them tacitly packed up their sample stall and walked to the truck to start unloading. Daniel watched as bundles of wild vegetables were weighed, his face beaming with joy. With this money, his future would be much easier. The driver and the two laborers were curious why anyone would want this stuff. All three were from the same hometown, so Daniel had initially instructed the fat man not to mention the purchase price, explaining that these people were hired by the market and he didn't want them to inform anyone else.
After working for half an hour, the weighing was finally finished. The prices of the various items were calculated, and the wild rotten vegetables alone, which cost $1.25 per kilogram, amounted to more than a thousand kilograms. Adding the other wild vegetables, One cost $0.75 [500kg]and other cost $1 per Kg [1000kg], the total came to $2625. Daniel was laughing so hard that he almost cried. The cost of $400 plus the total $30 for the truck fare was only a little over Four thousand. This was almost 6-7 times the profit. After instructing his men to load the wild vegetables onto the truck, the fat man took Daniel to the bank. Daniel opened a bank account with his own ID card. He had agreed to give the fat man a 12% cut, but because he was in a good mood, he only accepted $300, which made the fat man praise him for his generosity.
After the first truck was loaded, the second one arrived. The fat man looked at the truck, which was full of expensive things like wild vegetables and mountain roots, and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Young man, if I were to collect all of this truckload, even if I borrowed it from the market, it would cost me at least $3,000 short. How about I find someone to come and collect it with me now?"
"Brother, what kind of relationship do we have to talk about these things? Just tell me how much and when you want?."
Daniel said generously, "As many as you want, it's plenty!"
After taking out another savings book from his pocket, the fat man said with some helplessness, "Even if I have $2,000 in this book, and I can borrow about $1,000 from the market, it probably still won't be enough!"
Daniel immediately patted the fat man on the shoulder, showing his loyalty: "It's okay, just put together the money first! The debt will be covered once you help me sell other goods, right? If it's still not enough, then I won't take the difference. You've saved me a lot of trouble today, brother!"
Upon hearing this, the fat man immediately grinned. He ran out for a while and returned, sweating profusely, with a wad of cash in his hand. He deposited the total payment—$5,250 —into Daniel's account. Looking at this astronomical sum in the countryside, Daniel was delighted. After the fat man ran back to supervise the weighing, Daniel found a small shop and bought some beer and a few stir-fried dishes, letting the driver and laborers enjoy a good meal. Then he gave the first driver $30 to go home.
-----------------
Every Week 1/ch
Read 20+ Chapter before release here
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/RomanticDoaist
Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/RomanticDoaist